David Baldacci is the BEST!

I think this week’s All Henrico Reads event with David Baldacci could be classified as a success. Of course I’m a bit biased but I think most people who came out on Tuesday night had a good time. I don’t have any official count of how many people came but the auditorium was full and it seats 1200 people.

He spent almost an hour entertaining us with funny stories and his thoughts on literacy. If you didn’t know you wouldn’t have realized that it was his third talk of the day! He spent the morning talking with a large group of middle school students and the afternoon talking with high school students. The Times Dispatch has a good recap of the afternoon talk. Take a look at it.

There is one thing he discussed that I keep thinking about. That is literacy. He believes that literacy a powerful weapon in the fight against ignorance and intolerance and I agree. He and his wife founded the Wish You Well Foundation with the mission of  “supporting family literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs.” They have funded dozens of literacy programs across the country. It’s a good foundation with a great mission.

After his long day of speaking he stayed and signed many, many, many books. I don’t know how many but he was there for close to two hours. I can only imagine how tired his hand must be. I hope he was able to sleep late on Wednesday and have a relaxing day. He deserved it.

I’ve attached a slideshow of a few pictures I took during the event. If you would like to see more take a look at the library’s flickr site.

Were you at the event? What did you think about it?

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